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Volume 5 -
THIRD SUNDAY OF ADVENT
The Suddenness with Which the Last Day Shall Come
“Make straight the way of the Lord.”—John 1: 23.
And what is to happen after all those signs and portents? “Then they shall see the Son of man; “then the last day shall come, and Jesus Christ in his majesty and glory shall appear in the valley of Josaphat to judge the living and the dead. But when? Immediately after those signs, or a long time after? Who can tell us that? It is useless to ask, for no one knows it. All we know for certain about the matter is that
I. The last Day of Judgment shall come upon men quite suddenly and unexpectedly.
II. Therefore we should be ready for it every hour of our lives.
I. There have been many holy friends of God to whom he revealed the day, nay, even the hour, of their death; there have been wicked sinners the time of whose death and eternal damnation has been foretold by the prophets. The heavenly city of Jerusalem was shown to St. John the Evangelist. St. Paul was rapt up to the third heaven, where he saw mysteries that may not be revealed to men. Jesus Christ often spoke to his disciples about the kingdom of God, about the indescribable joys that there awaited them as the reward of their labors: “I have called you friends,” he says to them, “because all things whatsoever I have heard of my Father I have made known to you” (Mark 15: 15). But concerning the time of the end of the world and the coming of the Judge, no one either in heaven or on earth has ever heard a word. “Of that day or hour,” says our Lord expressly to his disciples after having told them of the signs that are to announce the last day, “no man knoweth, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but the Father” (Mark 13: 32). With these words he restrained the curiosity of his disciples regarding the time of the general judgment, as if he said to them: why should you desire to know what is hidden from the angels and even from the Son of man himself? These words are to be understood in this way: The Son of man knows nothing about the last day, not that he is absolutely ignorant of it, but that he does not wish to reveal it to any creature; that is, he has not of it a knowledge that he can communicate to others. In the same way a priest, if asked what such or such a one has said to him in confession, can with truth answer: I do not know. For in such circumstances the words mean simply: I do not know it by a knowledge that I can communicate to others; or else: I am as little at liberty to speak of it as if I were absolutely ignorant of it. Hence the knowledge of the time of the last day is kept most strictly from men, and therefore that day will come quite unexpectedly, and will fall upon men when they are least thinking of it.
Christ has foretold that he will come unexpectedly: “For as lightning cometh out of the east, and appeareth even unto the west: so shall also the coming of the Son of man be” (Matt. 24: 27). Lightning, as we know, appears suddenly and before one is aware of it; it shoots out of the clouds and flashes before our eyes; “so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.” He will appear to men before they have time to cast a thought on his coming. St. Peter says: “The day of the Lord shall come as a thief.” A thief would never dare to break into a house when he knows the inhabitants to be on their guard. No; he who is robbed is not aware of it until he finds his things gone. Like a thief in the night, the day of the Lord shall come unexpectedly.
Finally, the same truth is confirmed by the similes used by our Lord to describe
the manner in which the men of those times shall live: “And as it came to pass in
the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man.” And how did
people act then? “They did eat and drink; they married wives and were given in marriage
until the day that Noe entered into the ark.” And what then? “And the flood came,
and destroyed them all.” Wonderful was the blindness and stupidity of the men of
those days; not the least attention did they pay to the oft-
“Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man shall be revealed” (Luke 17: 30). Should we not think that so many signs would be enough to make the men of that time watchful? But no! When the fear and terror caused by the signs shall be at an end, they shall resume their former mode of life, and when they least expect it, “in the twinkling of an eye,” fire shall fall from heaven and reduce the world to ashes, and then the dreadful trumpet shall resound in all places, and the angel’s voice be heard crying out: “Arise, ye dead, and come to judgment!” And what conclusion are we to draw from this? “Make straight the way of the Lord;” therefore we should now prepare ourselves most carefully for that day.
II. After speaking of the uncertainty of the last day, and saying that no man or angel knows anything about it, Christ adds: “Watch ye, therefore, because you know not what hour your Lord will come” (Matt. 24: 42). Be ready like to a householder who expects a thief to break in, and knows not when he will come. “Watch ye, therefore.” “And what I say to you, I say to all: Watch” (Mark 13: 37); prepare yourselves for my coming; do penance for your sins; order your lives so now that when the Judge comes he may find you in the state of sanctifying grace; otherwise the fire that consumes your bodies shall be only a prelude to the eternal flames of hell.
Very probably we shall not live till the last day. But, although the world may last
for another thousand years, it behooves each one of us to be always on guard, and
to prepare most carefully, so that all may go well with us in the general judgment;
for in whatsoever state of life the end shall find each one, in that state, too,
shall the last day of the world find him; for as a man dies, so shall he be judged
on the last day. If we die in the state of grace we need not fear judgment, but rather
rejoice at it; the kingdom of heaven, the society of the elect, is surely open to
us. If we die in the state of sin we have nothing good to hope for on the last day;
the fire of hell among the reprobate is and will be our lot forever. Therefore the
judgment that awaits us on the last day depends on our death and the last day of
our lives; hence, as we should always be prepared for that day, so, too, should we
be always ready for the hour of death. Now, who can tell us when that hour shall
come, or where it shall find us? God alone knows that; to no purpose should we expect
a messenger to be sent to warn us. We know not whether it will be after ten or twenty
years, to-
Therefore, the conclusion is evident: every one of us who values his soul and its
salvation should and must now be ready for the coming of the Judge. And I say, “be
ready;” for it will be too late to begin to prepare when the Judge knocks at the
door; and it will be forever too late. “Watch, therefore,” our Lord says, because
you know not what hour your Lord will come.” And as you cannot know it, be on your
guard at all times; keep in the friendship of God; let no one dare to remain even
a quarter of an hour at enmity with him in the state of mortal sin; for perhaps during
that quarter of an hour death may come unexpectedly and hurry you off to the judgment-
No one should trust to his youth, and say: Oh, I am not old yet; I am still young,
strong, and healthy; I am not in danger of death; there is no hurry for me; I can
begin later on to amend my life and prepare for death. Alas, that wretched later
on! I am not old! I am still young! How many thousand souls have been hurled into
hell by those excuses! Do you mean, then, that young people cannot die? But very
few attain old age; most people die in their best years, and no one knows the hour
when the Lord will come for him; so that young as well as old should be prepared
at all times. You will amend later on, you say. What! Exclaims St. Augustine, later
on? He who thinks in that way deceives himself, and treats his death as a joke. Consider
the great risk of the last day, and what depends on it. Nothing less than eternal
joys or eternal torments! It is no child’s play! Is heaven such a trifle that it
can be allowed to depend on an uncertain “later on”? Is hell a trifle, that the escaping
it can be left to a “later on” that you know nothing about? Do you know what is said
of that servant in the Gospel who puts off everything to a future time, thinking
to himself: “My lord is long a-
How old are you now? Fifteen, twenty, thirty, forty or more years? Shall you live a year longer? You cannot tell; this very day or hour you maybe summoned before the tribunal of the Almighty. If that happened to you this day or hour, should you be ready? Is there anything on your conscience that you should first repent of and confess? If such is the case, oh, go to confession at once! Perhaps in another day or hour it may be too late! A whole eternity depends on this, and you cannot and will not burn forever with the demons in hell. You are fully determined with God’s help to go to heaven and be happy there with God and his elect. Now, your eternity depends on your last hour, on the state in which it finds you. Therefore, be always ready for it. But, you think, these are sad and melancholy thoughts. Not by any means! They are full of consolation for the soul that is determined to work out its salvation; for it must be a great consolation for such a soul to find itself prepared at all times for death. These thoughts are indeed sad and melancholy for those who are not minded to amend; but they should think of the sad and melancholy meditations they will one day make in hell, when they think: I could have been eternally happy, but I did not wish to be so!
In future always keep before your mind your death and the judgment that awaits you.
This will be a check on your evil inclinations and desires; it will spur on your
sluggish will to zeal in the service of God; it will detach your heart and affections
from earthly goods and pleasures; it will sweeten the short-
NOTE: Hear hundreds of tapes produced at Holy Family Recordings, including this Sermon, and all the Short Sermons by Father Francis Hunolt on cassette tapes. Order them from:
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